Where did evil come from?

What made the first created people decide to disobey God? What about the angels who were created to serve God but rebelled against Him? Where did evil come from? Fortner attempts to answer that question in today’s devotional yet his answer seems to fall short. It seems true that God was not surprised by evil, but to say that God ordained makes me think we are puppets.

Would an Internet search provide the answer? I took seven hits and found these results:

1. Unlike God and the angels, we have no power to resist evil and will always yield to its attraction. This fits the biblical descriptions of fallen humanity, but it was not true of Adam and Eve before the Fall. Sin entered the world then, not before they sinned. It suggests God created them with a propensity to sin, but they were made in His image so that isn’t right either.
2. God created evil. This page quotes Isaiah 45:7 as saying: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." However, this is a misinterpretation of the word “evil” which actually means “calamity” and usually refers to events resulting in loss or misfortune. Yet God can use calamity for His good purposes. We might call them ‘evil’ but biblically, evil is totally destructive and anti-God. This website also says that evil originated with Satan, and asks why God didn’t nip it in the bud by destroying Satan. However, that does not explain where the devil got the evil idea to rebel against God.
3. God created humans with the power to choose so there was always the possibility that we would choose to do evil. This seems closer to a good answer. Alvin Plantinga says, "To create creatures capable of moral good, therefore, (God) must create creatures capable of moral evil; and He can't give these creatures the freedom to perform evil and at the same time prevent them from doing so. As it turned out, sadly enough, some of the free creatures God created went wrong in the exercise of their freedom; this is the source of moral evil." In other words, evil happened not through nature or nurture, but choices.
4. Evil is the absence of what should be. God said His creation was ‘good’ and His intention was that we love Him and one another. However, love involves making a choice (otherwise we are robots). The opposite of choosing love is evil and it must exist if love is to exist. This short video explains better than my short paragraph. 
5. God created the ability to choose, from another short video that sounds almost like a pat answer. It focuses our God-given capacity to make choices and says Adam and Eve exercised that freedom and made a wrong choice. By doing this, sin entered the world. Yet the rebellion already existed for the angel Lucifer — who was also allowed to choose, and he decided he wanted to be god, to usurp his Creator. So evil in humanity is the fault of a wrong choice, and before that happened, evil came into the world because of another wrong choice. (Dr. Woodrow Kroll)
6. God allows evil for a time to test us. The sixth page is a cult definition, similar to those above but shallow. It falls short in explaining where evil comes from and has a non-biblical idea of redemption. However, it does show that all ‘religions’ struggle with this question about evil.
7. Evil evolved. The last page takes the idea that evil gradually evolved because of human fear and jealousy. The author does not believe the Bible is the Word of God, and his ideas are fanciful but without substance or based on any authority but his own ideas.

Reading these helped me understand the diversity of opinions. Some of them took verses out of context to explain their point of view and that is always unwise. Others did not consider the entire biblical message, also unwise. I landed on #4 and #5 as ringing true to the purposes of God. We cannot fully grasp this and other inaccessible answers because we do not have a full capacity to understand God. One thing is certain:

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19)

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, I know that You can stop sin. You did that with a pagan king (Genesis 20:6) and have done it many times for me. Yet You did not create robots. We are people with the ability to choose. Sin messes us up, even that ability to choose is messed up. However, redemption through faith in You restores our God-given faculties. Without You, I cannot do anything good, but with You I can obey You. Evil does not have to win — because You defeated it on the Cross.

Unchecked evil reproduces itself

Ahab, an evil king, ruled the people of Israel. He was brought down, then his wife Jezebel. After this, Jehu, the king of Israel, went after his descendents. He came to the leaders of the city where they lived and told them to select the best of Ahab’s sons and make him their king. This was a test. These leaders were afraid. They responded.

So he who was over the palace, and he who was over the city, together with the elders and the guardians, sent to Jehu, saying, “We are your servants, and we will do all that you tell us. We will not make anyone king. Do whatever is good in your eyes.” (2 Kings 10:5)

From this, Jehu knew that the people of the city were not interested in perpetuating the rule of their former king. He ordered the slaughter of that man’s sons, then entered the city and took responsibility for their deaths. He referred to a prophecy made by Elijah who declared Ahab would die, and even though this evil man repented, the prophet said, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster upon his house.” (1 Kings 21:29) 

As I read this, I’m thinking what does this have to do with me or my life, or the Christian world today? How is it relevant to modern life?

One answer is that evil still has the power to rule. It certainly grabs the hearts of criminals, thieves, and anyone who breaks the law. It can get into the hearts of Christians too. No one is immune to all the forms evil takes, from hate to greed, from pride to murder or murderous thoughts. The greatest evils also bear ‘children’ that are like them, perpetuating their grip on us and ruining our ability to live godly and righteous lives.

The people of the city who refused to make a king out of any of this evil man’s sons are like Christians who hate the power of evil and do not want it to rule. Yet like them also, we hesitate and are unable to take drastic action ourselves. We cry out to God and say “Do whatever is good in Your eyes.”

God replies. He wants all temptation spurned. Any evil that is in my heart is to be put to death, sent away, separated from the life of Christ and the life God asks me to live. Some of those evil thoughts, words and deeds may plead with me, “We are not really so bad,” but like the sons of Ahab, none of what evil does or perpetuates is to be spared.

Another answer is that when God asks me to choose who is king over my life, I need to refuse to let evil rule., I must be willing say no to it, relying on His Spirit to help me, but never hesitating or fearful of obedience.

Evil can take many forms. Ahab personified it, as did Jezebel. But they also had seventy sons destined for disaster, offspring that were evil also. 

Suppose I am jealous of another person. That jealousy can lead to gossip, backbiting, a mean spirited attitude toward that person, slander, unkind remarks, even refusal to do good toward him/her, which is also sin. Stopping the initial sin is important lest it spawn a whole host of children.

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Lord, keep my heart right toward You and toward others. Help me spot any evil in my life before it produces more of the same, and be ruthless to destroy it and not let it rule over my heart.

Evil has many faces . . .

If love has many definitions, so does evil. For some, evil is anything that threatens their comfort zone or their freedom to do whatever they please. Because of this, the definitions of both good and evil become confused. That is why Isaiah wrote, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

Biblically, evil also has many definitions, but it defines evil from God’s perspective, not our comfort. It shows that evil is anything that opposes or sets itself against God and the goodness of His character. Here are only a few verses about evil vs. good.

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). God is always sincere, never pretending to be what He is not. I’m to hate hypocrisy and cling to sincerity.

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate” (Proverbs 8:13). Like God, I am also to hate these things and instead cling to humility and a pure attitude.

“A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil” (Psalm 101:4). Perverse means froward, devious, contrary to what God wants. Like David who wrote this psalm, I must stay away from perverseness and instead have a pure heart that is free from evil.

However, the Greek word for evil surprises me. It is translated as “evil” 51 times, “wicked” 10 times, “wicked one” six times, “evil things” twice, and in miscellaneous ways seven times. Some of these usages show that the word is about wickedness and moral corruption, worthlessness, or having serious faults that make a thing without value. It can also refer to guilt as the result of sin, or jealousy, envy, stinginess, evil spirits, and crimes that are legally chargeable. It can also mean bad, of a bad nature or condition including the physical conditions of disease or blindness, but also the ethical sense of wickedness. In Matthew 6:13 where Christ says, “Deliver us from Evil,” the word is in the nominative case which usually denotes a title in Greek. Therefore, Christ is probably referring to Satan.

Here is the surprise part. This Greek word can mean “to be full of labors, annoyances, hardships; to be pressed and harassed by labors; to bring toil, annoyance and peril.” It can refer to a time of threat to my Christian faith and steadfastness, or anything that causes pain and trouble. Two of this word’s synonyms refer to the prominence or force related to the effort of work, and one of them refers to the resulting fatigue.

This makes me think. I know the Bible is not calling work evil, at least not the normal idea of work. What Scripture calls evil might be best seen by contrasting the above descriptions with the word used for “good.” This is agathos, a primary word mostly translated as good, and sometimes as “well” or “beneficial.” It is a descriptive word of things that have a good constitution or nature, are useful, salutary (give an opportunity for learning from experience), pleasant, agreeable, joyful, happy, excellent, distinguished, upright, and honorable.

There is a manner of doing work that is like that, a labor that might produce sweat, but it is good, not evil. However, there is another manner of doing work that is filled with anxiety and stress. It is fretful work that takes my mind off God. Instead of working in faith and with the joy that He gives, I am upset and pressured by doing it.

I cannot imagine God working in that second manner. He knows what He is doing and knows that He has the resources needed to do it. For Him, work is good and the result is good. He said so several times in the creation account in Genesis. He takes joy in what He does. He is not grumbling or impatient when the results are slow in coming. Work gives Him no harassment.

When I read the verse from Romans 12 about loving good and hating evil, I first thought, “Of course I hate evil,” but after taking a closer look, I realize my idea of evil was the obvious wicked stuff. After looking deeper, I now realize that being pressured and harassed by my to-do list is also part of what He commands me to abhor — because He calls that evil too. I need to do my work, but I need to cling to that which is good by tackling my list with God’s way of working, and abhor that attitude that makes good hard work an evil thing.